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Events in Ottawa

There were so many events happening on Thursday night. I decided to go to A Thing For Chocolate as Trish Murray, who’s a radio host at a station and also runs RedLeaf Music has created a series called Sounds Simple. It’s an acoustic music series held at an intimate place where they serve crepes and other sweets goods.

The series started in mid-January of 2015 and the February 5th edition had singer/songwriter, Derek Atkinson. At the Sounds Simple event, he went by Leonard Youngfoot. It’s an influence of the three famous Canadian singer/songwriters, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot. Atkinson also plays in the nine-member band, Loon Choir.

It was my first time being at A Thing For Chocolate, which is located in the Hintonburg area in Ottawa. It’s nice to support local businesses and try out unique food. I had a chance to try the pulled pork crepe. It had beets and it was definitely a delicious crepe. Continue reading →

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A new music showcase festival has started in Ottawa and it’s called Megaphono. The showcase festival is give the Ottawa music scene a way to shine and show that the city is striving in the arts and cultural scene. It’s to give an opportunity for Ottawa musicians and music-related companies to build connections and the creativity of what Ottawa is. There are concerts, panels and networking at the music showcase.

I went to the Launch along with the tape cutting ceremony which had Ottawa mayor, Jim Watson. Watson spoke at the event launch and to show his support of the music scene in Ottawa.

Checked out the panel, Connecting Ottawa Music. The panelists were Andrew Vincent, Ian Swain, and Kwende Kefentse. The moderator of the panel was Alan Neal. The panel brought great insight on what the Ottawa music scene should do and there’s so many obstacles to go through in growing Ottawa as a musical hub.

The event runs from February 3-5th. It’s definitely a good initiative to check out great and interesting live music in the Nation’s Capital.
Congratulations goes out to the organizers of Megaphono for making this Wintery event happen.

You can check out the photos from the launch over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

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Thursday night at Babylon Nightclub was The Mix 3rd Year Anniversary and it was hosted by the creator of the radio show, DJ 2 Creamz.

The Mix has been on the radio airwaves for 3 years and was originally an overnighter and is now from 8-10pm Fridays at this radio station.

Due to the amount of snowfall in Ottawa, I was able to make it in midst of the deep snow fall and the slow buses getting to downtown.
In celebrating the 3rd year anniversary, the event also had an art display by Dems & Doll and Dream Love Grow. Both had terrific artwork on display.

Prior to the performances, there was music DJ’ed by DJ Ducats. Even though I stayed for two hours, there were three performances on the bill. They were G. Grand, Eddie Quotez and Goliath Paw. All three are from Ottawa. It’s just great to that DJ 2 Creamz was able to bring local talent in the burgeoning Hip-Hop scene.Continue reading →

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It’s been awhile I have written a blog post and it’s most likely a Polaris Music Prize Gala withdrawal. October has been a slow month and it’s been a crazy and sombre time in Ottawa. The shooting in Ottawa on October 22, 2014 has been a tense and sad time as we all know that Cpl. Nathan Cirillo lost his life at the National War Memorial. People in Ottawa have bringing life back to normal after the tragedy. On Saturday night, I had the opportunity to drop by to the National War Memorial and pay my respect. It has been a week that I haven’t gone to downtown Ottawa. It’s a new reality set in the Nation’s Capital. Onto the entry.

The Elwins in Ottawa
On Saturday night, The Elwins were performing at Mavericks as they’re on tour with the Manitoba band, Royal Canoe. The band from Keswick, Ontario, which is north of Toronto are having a surprising year as they got signed to Hidden Pony Records. It’s worth mentioning that the band is taking up a challenge as they’re going to be TV critics. You can follow them at elwinsTVclub and @TheElwins on Twitter as well as blogging at The Huffington Post.
As for the concert, they played some of the usual songs and played some new songs. There was a good crowd for the show at Mavericks and for my experience, I was near two young ladies who were dancing enthusiastically and a bit of robo movements. The Elwins definitely brought the crowd to its feet as the city is moving back to normalcy from the tragic event of the past week. Prior to The Elwins playing was the Ottawa band, Pith and the Parenchymas.
I didn’t stay too long for Royal Canoe’s performance but there was a good turnout for the Winnipeg band.

You can check the photos via Flickr by clicking HERE. There’s also two Impossible B&W photos of The Elwins below.

The Haunted House Pop Up Show
Before going to the concert, I decided to drop by in the Westboro area for this event. It was a pop up shop as well as a Halloween costume party and festivities. Entering the pop up shop was a terrifying but creative entrance in time for Halloween.
The pop up show had paintings on display and sale as well as a photo booth and fortune telling. It was a fun event
I was there to give some support to DJ 2 Creamz as he spun some Halloween tunes. I decided to take some photos from the Polaroid camera and the digital camera. The Impossible Project B&W photos will be posted below.
Kudos to Dream Love Grow for hosting the event.

Since I hadn’t written anything for the month of October, I’m going to post some photos taken from the iPhone 6. That’s right, I changed phones as I finally upgraded. I had been using the iPhone 4S for about three years and needed to replace a phone. From below, some photos from Saturday’s event.

It has been whirlwind of a week in Ottawa and hoping you are safe with the loved ones.
Enjoy! Continue reading →

Last night was an enjoyable time to check out the third edition of Nuit Blanche Ottawa+Gatineau. NBOG is an event where artists creative a unique playground and space surrounding the downtown zones of Ottawa and further down Wellington West/Hintonburg. This year’s theme or tagline is Bypass! What that meant was that artists try to convey us of bypassing the use of culture and direction within the city.

The place I wandered around, they were at Byward Market, Ottawa School of Art, Arts Court and Canadian Museum of History. I went pretty early to some of the places as some art displays were not set up. One of the unique installations was down by the Wellington and Elgin bridge. It was an airplane crash simulation-type and not for the faint of heart.

Over at Arts Court, there were several exhibits and displays there. There was this unique installation called Passage by Jesse Stewart and it’s an audio-visual experiment where he used the tunnel from Arts Court to Mugshots Bar. Uniquely dark walking to the tunnel and then experiencing the tight, cramped space climbing the ladder and onto one of the holding cells of the former jailhouse. It’s also the last time where the tunnel will be used as Arts Court/Ottawa Art Gallery will be renovating.
There were art exhibits on display in conjunction with Ottawa International Animation Festival. One stood out was Disney Made Me Do It. You will see some photos posted on Flickr.

At Ottawa School of Art, there was a micro party and outside the school, there were food stands from tacos and Chinese style buns. Lot of fun activities at that building.

For the second year in attending the event, there was rain dropping on and off. I had two cameras and an umbrella to contend with. This kind of event brings the interactive fun to Ottawa and to show that arts scene is thriving in the Nation’s Capital.
Unfortunately, I didn’t stay for the whole night as I had to take the final bus ride at around midnight. Before leaving downtown, I bumped into a few friends and took some instant photos and you will see those from below.
You can check the photos over on Flick. Click HERE.

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On Tuesday night, The National Arts Centre played host to the Polaris Music Prize Salon as the Polaris jury members discussed the 2014 Polaris Short List and who would win it. For the Ottawa edition, Steve Jordan, the founder and Executive Director of Polaris Music Prize moderated while the panelists consisted of Ryan Bresee (CKCU), Roch Parisen (Rochon Communications),and John Sekerka (CHUO).

The panelists and Jordan discussed the ten albums and what were their best and worst from the 2014 edition of the Short List. One of the topics raised at the Salon was the criticism of this year’s Short List having seven of the ten albums being repeat and returning nominees. The Ottawa jury didn’t have an issue with it whereas Canadian music fans in general have complained about it. Jordan also mentioned about the future of the album as a whole with what people buy and listen to.

The albums that were garnered a lot of discussions were Drake, Mac Delmarco, Tanya Tagaq and Timber Timbre because it brought in the positives and negatives in terms of artistic merit coming from the Ottawa jury. Mac Delmarco was contentious as Bresee said that it was not his favourite from the short list and the same went for Drake as Parisen and Sekerka weren’t fans of his album.Continue reading →

Kicking off the new season of the blog and now on its tenth season. You’ll notice a change in the look of the blog. It’s still a work in progress as I will probably be changing things around to the blog. It’s astounding that the blog has continued for pretty long. Aside from that, on to the event I went.

I had the opportunity to check out the 11th edition of House of PainTwhich happened at the Dunbar Bridge Underpass located near Carleton University and Brewer Park. For those who don’t know House of PainT, it’s a hip-hop festival showcasing and celebrating urban arts and culture in Ottawa.

This year’s festival is held for five days. The one I went was day 3 and dubbed, The Main Event. Saturday lineup had the ever popular graffiti wall, the crew bboy/bgirl, workshops, live music performances (DJs and Rap) and visual arts. It was definitely a fine Saturday to be out and after the crazy thunderstorm which hit two times on Friday in Ottawa.

I missed out last year’s HOP but I made it out to this year’s festival by bringing along the trusty Polaroid camera (SX-70) with the Impossible Project films to shoot some fun instant photos and getting the people excited with it. The black & white Impossible photos are posted below.
You can check out the digital photos over on Flickr. Click here to view the photos.Continue reading →